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Month: September 2016

Dick and Betsy DeVos are the founders of The Windquest Group, a Grand Rapids based technology investment firm, and local activists who founded the Dick & Betsy DeVos Foundation. This foundation has been responsible for effecting change primarily in Michigan’s education system, but has also been a part of healthcare, environment, and other business reforms at the local level. According to Philanthropy Roundtable, Betsy is a dedicated grassroots believer who has fought for local control of education, and opportunities for underprivileged children to have better quality education. Dick and Betsy have been longtime warriors for the Michigan Republican Party, and for conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation and Acton Institute.

Dick DeVos was raised in a family that worked hard on a family business, and gave back to the Grand Rapids community as well. His father, Richard DeVos founded Amway, one of the largest direct selling companies in the US, and would later purchase the NBA’s Orlando Magic whom he still owns to this day. Dick DeVos learned the family business very well and started managing various outlets of it at just 19, not long after becoming executive vice president along with his brothers Dan and Doug. He eventually became CEO when his father stepped down in 1993, and through his leadership Amway reached into a many new markets, and grew it’s profits near $5 billion. He retired from Amway in 2002 and became more involved in politics and charity work, along with his wife Betsy.

Dick DeVos wrote the book Rediscovering American Values in 1998, a best-seller that highlighted the importance of charity and moral virtue in addition to pursuing the American dream. He and Betsy helped start the Education Freedom Fund to bring more private and charter school vouchers to lower income families, and finance scholarships for students. They also started a first-of-its-kind aviation charter school that educates high school age young people in aircraft and piloting, as well as mechanics and skills that can be used in the workforce. The DeVos’s also gave a large donation to the Kennedy Center’s art institute, which was shortly renamed in their name.

The Mergers & Acquisition Advisor announced that Madison Street Capital which is a Chicago-based international investment banking firm was the finalist for the 15th yearly M&A Advisor Awards. The awards are a symbol of achievement in the financial field for recognizing excellence in deal making, professionalism, celebrating the contributions and achievements of leading firms, restructuring and financing.

Madison Street Capital is famous for both industrials deal of the year under $100M and Boutique Investment Banking Firm of the Year International. Senior managing director of Madison Street Capital Mr. Karl D’Cunha also facilitated the purchasing of Acuna & Asociados S.A. by Dowco. Mr. Charles Botchway, CEO and founder of Madison Street Capital explained that he was pleased to have been able to assist their longstanding client Dowco with the purchasing of Acuna & Asociados S.A and as a financial firm, their honored to be in the execution of business for boutique investment banking firm of the year international. Madison Street dealmakers work inexhaustibly across various time zones to connect their clients with emerging and growing businesses that can suit their different needs for continued success and growth.

According to an article on benzinga.com, the purchasing of Acuna & Asociados S.A. by Dowco was a complicated cross-border transaction with lots of moving parts. “It feels good being a part of that accomplishment,” Mr. Karl D’Cunha the Senior Managing Director of MSC said.

About Madison Street Capital (MSC)MSC is an international investment banking company which commits itself to excellence, financial advice, valuation services, integrity, leadership merger and acquisition expertise services to both private and public held businesses. These services are all geared in positioning the clients to succeed in the global market. Madison Street Capital has won the trust of customers internationally via unwavering dedication to the highest levels of professional standards.

About M&A Advisor
The M&A Advisor was discovered in 1998 to offer intelligence on M&A duties. Over the past seventeen years, M&A has established the global network, Finance, and turnarounds of the firm’s activities. To date, M&A advisor has had the privilege of bridging the connections between the industry’s top performers.

About Dowco Group of Companies
Dowco is a leading international integrated Steel Detailing, pre-construction, and Building Information Modeling (BIM )services company. Dowco’s leading service solutions have never hindered its services to be in any geographical boundary whether regional or in a global market. During its 46 years in business, Dowco has researched for innovative ways to rise above the services of its competitors. Different techniques in detailed engineering have evolved rapidly over the past few decades. Dowco’s ability to embrace new technologies sets it apart from its competitors and has over the yeas allowed Dowco to grow at a fast rate in business recognition in the industry.

IAP is a global corporation that is devoted to solving big problems around the world. It operates in 25 countries with a staff of 2000 people working on the most difficult problems one can imagine. IAP Worldwide’s employees are an elite family of experts who do their job without complaint and keep asking for more responsibility. This is a company that serves the U.S. military in war zones, as well as the public, and private sector domestically and internationally. In some situations, IAP Worldwide Services must charge boldly into natural disasters like hurricanes at a moment’s notice. It can plan and complete challenging missions that few other companies could ever hope to solve. IAP is also on the cutting edge of research so that its staff has the best tools available to them when they are called out on a mission.

IAP was founded more than 60 years ago and it has achieved a near legendary reputation for its reliability and responsiveness. There is little question that it is a market leader in the fields of logistics, technical services, and facilities management. IAP Worldwide is notorious for exceeding its customer’s expectations so that they don’t have to lay up at night worrying that their problem is unsolvable. They have confidence that if a solution exists IAP Worldwide will find it. IAP adopts its customer’s mission as its own and channels its commitment into raw passion.

IAP’s stance on corporate responsibility is to treat everyone with respect. Every contractor that IAP worldwide staff come into contact with will be treated as a member of the family because that is part of IAP’s fundamental values. The company does not rest until the results have been achieved. IAP credits its success to four key principles that it holds close to its breast at all times: Leadership, History, Partners, and Ethics.

To IAP Worldwide Services leadership means serving communities and customers with ingenuity and a genuine sense of purpose. History means building in the present with the future in mind and remembering where you come from. Partners refers to allying with diverse businesses who share the same values. Ethics means doing things the right way and making sure that ones actions are in alignment with professional standards of conduct and high moral standards at all times. It is more than just solving problems as efficiently as possible because the values you carry with you are an essential part of who you are. That is the IAP Worldwide way.

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Madison Street Capital recently released their fourth edition of its hedge fund industry mergers and acquisitions overview which provides an overview of transactions that took place in the previous year. The reports summarized that a total of 42 hedge fund deals were announced or took place around the world in 2015 which was up by ten deals from 2014. The volume transaction which is measured by assets under management was also up in 2015 by 27 percent. The report also predicts that the financial environment is ripe for a record amount of transactions in 2016. Although hedge fund performance lagged in 2015, the industry is seeing an all-time high of assets under management. Small funds are finding it difficult to attract new assets to manage and many funds are collecting less fees while incurring higher operational costs. This is forcing managers to consider all of their options. For these reasons Madison Street Capital is predicting a busy 2016, not only will there be the typical M&A deals but funds will be also looking at strategic partnerships and revenue sharing opportunities. Learn more: http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=116516616

Madison Street Capital is an industry leader in the global hedge fund industry. For many years, their clients have put their trust in Madison Street Capital for all of their investment banking needs. The services Madison Street Capital provides include corporate financial advisory services, merger and acquisition expertise, financial opinions, and valuation services to publicly and privately held businesses. The depth of knowledge and experience that MSC offers their clients allows their clients to reach their goals in the market place through strategic planning.

One of MSC most recent transactions was when they acted as the exclusive advisor to The Dowco Group of Companies for the acquisition of Acuña & Asociados S.A. With this acquisition MSC helped Dowco position itself to grow the presence and become the leader in the global steel detailing market. Due to the fact that the transaction involved two nations, it was imperative that Dowco have an experienced advisor to help guide them through the complexities of the two corporate and legal systems.

Another recent transaction that MSC acted as an advisor on is slated to change the health care system in India. MSC advised Pearl Human Care Pvt. Ltd. to form the international collaboration with Henry Ford Health System. The two entities are working together to build state of the art health care facility in India. Both parties in the transaction have indicated that it could never have happened in such a short period of time without the expertise that MSC brought to the table.

Madison Street Capital has offices in the US, India and Africa which allows MSC to meet their clients’ needs no matter where they are located in the world.

Richard Marvin DeVos, Jr, also called Dick DeVos, is a Michigan-born entrepreneur who is currently the CEO of the Windquest Group, an investment firm that specializes in manufacturing, non-profit, technology, and clean-tech solutions. Sustainability is one of the core visions of the Windquest Group under the leadership of DeVos. He is working to help the company invest in environmentally sound and economically sustainable technologies. Dick DeVos has been the President of the Windquest Group since 2002 and was the CEO of Amway before that.

Amway

1974 is when Dick DeVos started in Amway Corporation a company co-founded by his father; Richard DeVos Sr. He has held various positions at Amway in several departments including finance, marketing, research and development, sales, and manufacturing. DeVos then rose to Vice President of Amway in 1984, a position that saw him lead the company to new markets, and drove international sales of the company to three times higher than the domestic ones, a first in history for Amway. In 1993, DeVos returned to Amway as its president, a position he held until 2002. His responsibility was to oversee the operations of the company in over 50 countries across six continents. While he was Amway’s president, he took the company on a corporate restructuring mission that resulted in a new parent company called Alticor. This process took 20 months, and also led to the formation of other subsidiary companies. DeVos saw the restructuring as necessary to return the company to profitability and prevent it from downsizing more than it already had; a feat he achieved with his brother Doug DeVos. In the fiscal year that DeVos retired as president, he saw the company rack in $4.5 billion in sales.

Other Achievements

In 1991, the DeVos family bought the NBA’s Orlando Magic, and Dick DeVos became its president until 1993. When he started out, some critics expressed doubts that he couldn’t manage an NBA franchise, but DeVos proved he could by using his business acumen to run the team. He went through the Forest Hills Public school system and then graduated from Northwood University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. DeVos attended Harvard business School but did not graduate, and he also went through the Executive Study Program at Wharton School. He has honorary doctorates from Northwood, Central Michigan University, and Grove City College. In 2006, DeVos ran for Governor of Michigan on a Republican ticket but lost. He got elected to the Michigan State Board of Education in 1990 but only served two years then left to run Amway.